On May 8-9, I attended Ragan Communications’ 2012 Advanced Social Media Strategies for PR, Marketing, and Corporate Communications summit, hosted at Cisco. Unfortunately, there’s not enough space in a blog post for me to write about all 28 speakers. Instead, I’ll focus on some recurring themes, trends, and ideas that stood out to me.

The world is changing at an uncomfortable pace

Carlos Dominguez from Cisco said it simply: the next generation is reinventing the rules. Globally, more people own a cell phone than a tooth brush. This made me think—many companies are having trouble understanding and adapting to an environment with Millennials (born 1982-2000, like me!).  Are we prepared for the change that the “always on” generation (born after 2000) will bring? As children, they’re already having a huge impact. Carlos showed a video of a child that thought a magazine was broken because it didn’t respond to touch. It’s not surprising that the iPad is now the most popular toy for children.

Later in the day, Kim Celestre from Forrester Research and Jeremy Bromwell from Definition 6 spoke separately about a change from “media” to “social.” Technology is not always the star of the show anymore. It is simply a vehicle for interactions and communications. The focus has shifted from having technology to what that technology enables you to do.

Brian Solis from Altimeter Group continued the discussion with a presentation about Social Media Optimization (SMO) as the “new” Search Engine Optimization (SEO). He said that it is no longer his job to talk to you, but to talk through you, since in this new social environment, the audience has an audience of audiences that are all connected.

Content FTW (For the Win) Read More »

Tags: Cisco, marketing, PR, Ragan Communications, social media

On May 8^th and 9^th, come to Cisco Headquarters to learn advanced social practices, mingle with old friends and make new ones at the 2012 Advanced Social Media Strategies for PR, Marketing and Corporate Communications Summit. Hang out with us and other attendees in the real and virtual worlds as we explore topics like how to:

• Adapt to the social business model: the key to real culture change
• Hone in on the “social” aspect of social media
• Build a collaborative case for social media to persuade your C-suite
• Use carrots—not sticks—to get buy-in for a social media marketing strategy
• Take risks, measure results and meet marketing goals using social media
• Track the ROI of social media Read More »

Tags: advanced, best practices, Cisco, communication, events, marketing, PR, Ragan Communications, social media, strategy, tips